Questions tagged [terminology]
For questions about words, phrases, and definitions that are specific to aviation or used in a different way in aviation. (Questions about standard words, phrases, and abbreviations used by pilots and ATC specifically in radio transmissions should usually use the [phraseology] tag instead.)
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What is a "slender delta" wing?
I am curious about delta wings. I read some articles and found the term "slender delta". Please help me to understand this term.
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What does "RA" mean in the FAA Terminal Constraints?
I'm trying to interpret the Terminal Constraints listed on the Operations Plan Advisory (https://www.fly.faa.gov/adv/adv_spt.jsp). RA seems to be used in the context of weather, but I haven't been ...
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What is the relationship between Angle of Attack and Angle of Incidence?
The Angle of Incidence (AoI) of most GA planes is 6°. Assuming a plane with an Angle of Incidence of 6 degrees--
How do we calculate pitch attitude if we know the direction of the flight path and the ...
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What is the FAA definition of "takeoff" and "landing"?
This question is in the context of commercial flights with passengers.
What is the definition of "takeoff" and "landing" phases? Does it include taxi? Is it from lift-off for takeoff? and touchdown ...
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Gage or Gauge? Which is correct in the aviation industry? [closed]
Gage or Gauge?
Some official aviation sources seem to use the spelling "gage" whether referencing cockpit instruments or aircraft maintenance tooling.
However, more broad English sources note that "...
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What does the letter G mean in a runway identifier?
Boulder Municipal Airport (KBDU) has runways 8 / 26 and also runways 8G / 26G. What is the significance of the letter G following the runway numbers?
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What is the relationship between the terms "airprox" and "near mid-air collision"?
Do the terms "Airprox" and "Near mid-air collision" mean the same? If not what is the difference between them?
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What is Arctic Control Area (ACA)?
I saw that in Jeppesen airway manual but I didn't find a definition for it. What is that?
How to establish it? Who establishes it and for what reason?
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Is it incorrect to refer to a C-130 as a jet?
In this article by CNN, the C-130 involved in the unfortunate crash in Savannah, GA is referred to as a "jet." Is this considered proper usage? I'm not looking for public opinion here but official ...
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What does the FAA mean by "Make and Model" of aircraft?
Short Version: How does the FAA define the terms "make" and "model" in regulatory documents, particularly in the context of referring to pilot experience in aircraft?
Long Version
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What does "inertial" refer to in "inertial reference"?
An ADIRU makes use of air data reference and inertial reference. Inertial reference calculates the heading, position, ground speed and attitude. I was wondering why is it called inertial. Is it ...
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What is the english term for "vol en ficelle"?
From what I have read online and understood, "vol en ficelle" is basically a low altitude flight preparation method that requires calculating a set of altitudes to be followed in order not to crash.
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Why do we say "climb" and not "ascend"?
The term for moving to a lower altitude is "descending." Why, then, is the term for moving to a higher altitude "climbing" and not "ascending"? The latter goes better with the term "descending."
Does ...
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Does the reference for AGL include obstacles?
Let's say a plane flies 10m above some trees, that themselves are 10m above the underlying ground. Would that be 10m or 20m AGL?
Or, in more abstract terms: What exactly is the reference point for ...
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What's the difference between "HAND OFF" and "HAND OVER"?
I think "HAND OVER" is a whole process of transfering radar idenrification between 2 controllers, and "HAND OFF" is a term used by the transfering controller(not receiving controller) when doing HAND ...
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What is it called when an airplane has to circle because it can't land?
Sometimes, a plane is required to circle around an airport repeatedly because for whatever reason, it is not able or permitted to land just yet.
This state in which a plane is stuck in the air in ...
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Why is the Departure leg of the traffic pattern being mistaught as Upwind?
I hear a LOT of newer pilots and CFI's erroneously referring to the Departure leg of the traffic pattern as the Upwind. Ref. A.I.M. Sec 4-3-2. Actually had a Tower controller tell me "I'll call your ...
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Is there a generic term for origin and destination seen from an airport point of view?
I am trying to create a program that gives you the departures or the arrivals from a given airport.
Thus, in the software code, I would like to refer to both origin...
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Is a pilot responsible for CTAF announcements in this scenario? [closed]
A Cessna 525 Citation Jet is coming in to land and a single-engine Cessna 150 is taking off at a small airport with no ATC. The Cessna 150 stays in continued radio contact and the Cessna 525 Citation ...
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What is the name of the system that replaced stairs for disembarking aircraft?
Back in the day, or in old airports, or airports that have not upgraded their systems, passengers disembarked in aircraft using stairs, through rain and or snow and extreme weather, sometimes having ...
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What's the difference between aquaplane and hydroplane?
If one reads through 10 articles describing a plane which overran a contaminated runway, the term aquaplane will be used 9 times and the term hydroplane once (and on that one time there will be a ...
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Are there FAA rules about changing an airport name from Municipal to Regional?
Are there any FAA requirements to be met or stipulations for an airport to change its name from Municipal to Regional?
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What is it called when you roll without yawing or pitching?
My instructor made me do an exercise that consists of banking the sailplane left and right around 30 degrees without moving from the axis. I need to aim for a specific point, and start with the ...
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What is the history of "Joker" and "Bingo" fuel terms?
Why do we use, in military aircraft, the words "Joker" and "Bingo" to indicate the fuel status of the aircraft? What is the history of these two terms?
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What exactly is the meaning of "detent" in aviation?
I come across it in many different situations e.g. "settings changed to flight detent" or "landing altitude changes at first detent". There are other scenarios which I came across in the past, but I ...
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What is a "round-robin flight", in layman's terms?
I'm struggling to find a sufficient explanation of a round-robin flight, as it pertains to ATC.
Can someone explain, in layman's terms, what it is and the lifecycle of a round-robin flight? Graphic ...
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What are the components of a crew pairing?
I need to do some modeling for an FRMS (Fatigue Risk Management System). By crew pairing I mean a sequence of flights that starts and ends at crew base. From my understanding, crew pairings are made ...
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"Total time away from gate", "Longest time away from gate" - what does this mean?
In the US, airlines or airports report two figures regarding canceled flights:
the total time away from the gate and the single longest time away from the gate.
and regarding diverted flights:
...
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Why does the Trent XWB have intermediate compressor stages?
I realized that the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB on the Airbus A350 has intermediate compressor stages. Why is that?
Other engines like the CFM56 or IAE V2500 that power most of the A320-family have low ...
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What is the ICAO equivalent of a "point out"?
In FAA air traffic control, when we have an aircraft that is transitioning through someone else's airspace that we want to talk to we do a "point out":
Point Out. A physical or automated action ...
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Is there a comprehensive list of IFR terms with definitions?
Is there a comprehensive list of IFR terms with definitions easily available? I am trying to make some flash cards for study
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What does 'given rate' mean?
I was watching this video:
At around 1:28 I heard the controller clear a plane to descend to a level "given rate". I was searching online but couldn't seem to find ...
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Where does the term “throttle quadrant” come from?
The area of many flight decks that contains throttles or thrust levers is often referred to as the “throttle quadrant” or “thrust lever quadrant” even if it’s not one of four parts of the panels.
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When passing a waypoint, when exactly are we on the next leg?
When performing one of the procedures shown in the pictures below, when exactly do we consider ourselves to be on the next leg?
For example: for the fly-by waypoint, when do we consider that we are ...
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What is that invisible bump in the air called that occurs after completing a 360 degree turn?
Does that bump you feel after completing a level 360 degree turn in an airplane have a proper name? I've heard it called an "attaboy bump", but obviously thats not a proper name.
My understanding is ...
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What is the difference between a "compass swing" and "check swing" procedure?
What is the difference between a "compass swing" and a "check swing" procedure?
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What would be a technical or slang term for 'in the air'?
I'm writing a sci-fi story involving aircraft and space craft. I'm struggling to get the terminology right for referring to a pilot being 'in the air' either on a mission or a training exercise. I ...
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Aviation terminology for 'in the field' [duplicate]
I'm writing a sci-fi story involving aircraft and space craft. I'm struggling to get the terminology right for referring to a pilot being 'in the field' either on a mission or a training exercise. I ...
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What is the exact definition of Taxi Time?
I found some definitions on the web, but they weren't same.
Some resources mentioned it is sum of the times the aircraft is moving on the ground with its own engines. Some defined it as the time ...
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What is situational awareness and why is it important?
What is the definition of situational awareness? In which phase of flight is situational awareness the lowest, and why?
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What is the difference between en route and airway?
I am studying about airway now. But there are multiple terms that mean airway like enroute or air route. I don't know exactly what the difference is between them.
Airway, en route, air route, air ...
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What are these "F,S,O" characteristic speeds?
I am leaning for an avionics exam and I encountered a question asking for the meaning of F, S and O . They appear to be "Characteristic speeds", which are calculated by the flight management system (...
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Who first coined the phrase "aviate, navigate, communicate"?
The phrase "aviate, navigate, communicate" describes the priorities of tasks for a pilot. It is applicable to a wide variety of situations, including military scenarios and emergencies.
Who first ...
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Would an ASTERIX decoder be "radar data processing" or "surveillance data processing"?
I am not an air traffic controller, I am a software engineer. I developed an ASTERIX decoder, the application will just extract all the information and save it in a text file.
I am just wondering how ...
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What, exactly, is a "co-pilot"?
When I speak of a co-worker, or a co-driver, I'm speaking of a mutual relationship and status (that's simply how the prefix co works in normal English) and I'm pretty sure it's what most people mean ...
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What is the ASTERIX terminology for an atomic piece of information?
The ASTERIX standard defines the smallest piece of metadata information:
Data Item: The smallest unit of information in each Data Category.
And the implementation equivalent:
Data Field: ...
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What does "redatum" means?
I was doing a question about a fully hydraulic elevator and it's position in relation to the trimmable horizontal stabiliser and the explanation of the answer contained the word "redatum". ...
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What is the difference between fail-safe and fail-soft?
I have heard the following terms related to safe system design but I cannot really see a difference between fail-safe and fail-soft (graceful degradation).
To get a common understanding I will just ...
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What is the difference between a nautical mile and a statute mile? And what is a knot?
What is the difference between a "nautical mile" and a "statute mile?"
And what is a "knot?"
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Why is an ATC operational error called a "deal"?
Air Traffic Controllers who lose separation between aircraft call that event a "deal". Why?
When the Conflict Alert function was added to the computer system, it reported conflicts to the area ...
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